It’s that time of the year when you can nominate your instructors of different courses you have taken this semester for teaching excellence award. Your instructor won’t know who you are nominating and that doesn’t affect your grading.

If you decide to nominate me as one of the instructors you would be nominating , you have to select the option for Graduate Student Instructor (second one on the list).

Most of us understand terms like heterosexual, homosexual( lesbians and gay) and bisexual. But how about transsexual, transgender, and intersex?

People who identify as transgender or transsexual are usually people who are born with typical male or female anatomies but feel as though they’ve been born into the “wrong body.” For example, a person who identifies as transgender or transsexual may have typical female anatomy but feel like a male and seek to become male by taking hormones or electing to have sex reassignment surgeries.

People who have intersex conditions have anatomy that is not considered typically male or female. Most people with intersex conditions come to medical attention because doctors or parents notice something unusual about their bodies. In contrast, people who are transgendered have an internal experience of gender identity that is different from most people.

Many people confuse transgender and transsexual people with people with intersex conditions because they see two groups of people who would like to choose their own gender identity and sometimes those choices require hormonal treatments and/or surgery. These are similarities. It’s also true, albeit rare, that some people who have intersex conditions also decide to change genders at some point in their life, so some people with intersex conditions might also identify themselves as transgender or transsexual.

In spite of these similarities, these two groups should not be and cannot be thought of as one. The truth is that the vast majority of people with intersex conditions identify as male or female rather than transgender or transsexual. Thus, where all people who identify as transgender or transsexual experience problems with their gender identity, only a small portion of intersex people experience these problems.

People who identify as transgender or transsexual also face discrimination and deserve equality. We also believe that people with intersex conditions and folks who identify as transgender or transsexual can and should continue to work together on human rights issues; however, there are important differences to keep in mind so that both groups can work toward a better future.

Transsexuals are people who transition from one sex to another. A person born as a male can become recognizably female through the use of hormones and/or surgical procedures; and a person born as a female can become recognizably male. That said, transsexuals are unable to change their genetics and cannot acquire the reproductive abilities of the sex to which they transition. Sex is assigned at birth and refers to a person’s biological status as male or female. In other words, sex refers exclusively to the biological features: chromosomes, the balance of hormones, and internal and external anatomy. Each of us is born as either male or female, with rare exceptions of those born intersex who may display characteristics of both sexes at birth.

Transgender, unlike transsexual, is a term for people whose identity, expression, behavior, or general sense of self does not conform to what is usually associated with the sex they were born in the place they were born. It is often said sex is a matter of the body, while gender occurs in the mind. Gender is an internal sense of being male, female, or other. People often use binary terms, for instance, masculine or feminine, to describe gender just as they do when referring to sex. But gender is more complex and encompasses more than just two possibilities. Gender also is influenced by culture, class, and race because behavior, activities, and attributes seen as appropriate in one society or group may be viewed otherwise in another.

Listen Time Wise talking about his book Between Barack and a Hard Place. In your comment share 3 epiphanic moments ( moments of sudden realization; you may want to mark them by indicating exactly when those come in the video, e.g. 3:13-3:40,etc. ) and explain how those challenged your views.

In week 7, we are continuing conversations about white privilege until chapter 7 takes a new turn to white progressives. Historically, white allies have been very important part of cross-racial efforts to end discrimination.

(a) White allies have been contributing to end discrimination. Watch a short clip:

(b) Even in 2014, we see many events where cross-racial coalition that goes beyond the racial divide and works for social justice.

Watch a video about Moral Monday Movement.

It is true that issue based cross-racial affiliation and also anti-racist cross-racial affiliation is part of the US history though very few people know about it. Watch how Time Wise connects Moral Monday Movement with anti-racist movement and the contribution of white allies: